The Gujarat education department had received over 460 online complaints regarding allotment of schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act’s 25 per cent reservation rule when the admission process was underway, but little was done to address those concerns. As per the ‘feedback database’ of the complaints registered within 45 days and accessed by The Indian Express, more than 80 per cent of the applicants while filling the application forms had alerted the department about difficulty in locating address on Google map and irregularities in the school list.

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Despite repeated complaints from across the state during online form submission, there was hardly any measure taken by the state education department. One complaint by a father from Vapi stated, “Very sorry to say, the way school names have been written, there are so many spelling mistakes. Even school names are wrong. For instance, under Valsad-Vapi, a school — R.j.a.s. Hig.school — has been listed.

There is no school with this name. There is RGAS High School. If state education department does so many mistakes, how do we expect them to teach students.”

Many others cited problems in locating their addresses on Google map, as necessitated in the application form. A parent from Jamnagar said, “I tried to locate my address, but the address does not appear on it, so please remove this option from the site.”

Joint Director of the RTE, H N Chavda, said, “The lapse was not in the online process, but on the part of district receiving centres. If these centres had been alert to identify errors in the application forms before submission, it could have been avoided. Still, we are hopeful to resolve these issues.”